My Story

Please be patient with the story. I get slightly verbose, and scatter brained.

I had always been a thin child. I was actually very cute, if I do say so myself. When I hit 14, I still had not had a period, but didn't mind cause I thought it was gross. But puberty in other ways hit me with a vengeance. I got acne, and gained lots of weight. I just hit this ugly phase. At the same time I pretty much hit a depression, that I never got out of until a couple of years ago. I went through High School, being very social, but never sure of myself, and rarely getting a period.

When I went to College I decided that I should finally see a Doctor about the lack of periods. So in the Summer of 1993 I went to see my first OB/Gyn. A lovely European woman, who prescribed Lo-ovral BC (birth control). I continued to take this until the Fall of 1994, when, honestly, I just got sick of taking it, and was too poor to pay the $25/month for it. And since I was not sexually active, it didn't seem like a big deal. A few months later, my period had stopped, so I went to a Doctor in the college town I was living in and told him my problems, and he said , .."we will put you back on the birth control, but you should really consider losing weight." yah, thanks for the advice.  He gave me a progesterone shot to start my period, and gave me Demural or Demulin (sp?) BC. My roommates and then fiancé' affectionately called these the demon pills, cause I was a wreck. A total Witch! Needless to say, he put me back on Lo-Ovral.

My husband and I were married in May of 1995 in Provo, Utah (see pictures). When we married we had previously discussed my lack of a period, and the chance that I may not be able to have children. Being the amazing husband that he is (a requirement with PCOS), he accepted this and never thought twice about it.

In the Summer of 1995, after we had been married a short time, we decided to not use any BC any more, so I went off the pill. After a few months, I went back to this college doctor, and talked to him about not getting pregnant, let alone not getting my period (I have since learned that usually one has to do with the other). He said, "...don't worry about it you're young". At this point I didn't know who was more naive, him or me! He told me to come back in 3 months, for a check-up. 3 months and no BC later, I faithfully returned to his office, where I showed him my BBT (Basal Body Temperature) chart, and asked what was wrong with me. He smiled and said something along the lines of..."you're serious about this aren't you?". DUH!! He gave me a prescription for Clomid after giving me another Progesterone shot and told me to check with him later. Nothing happened. I didn't even get my period.

At this point, I was depressed, whether it was chemical or emotional I don't know. We were living in a small town in Utah, where everyone was having babies one right after another. And people were asking us when we were going to start a family (it had been maybe a year). We smiled and said "Soon", even though I felt like saying "as soon as you get out of my freaking face, jerk!". It was about this time, that I made up my mind to not think about ever having children. I did not want to be hurt, so even though we never used BC anymore, I did not even want children. I never returned to that Doctor (side note: this dr. was a family friend...don't ever do that!)

We moved to Hawaii for 2 years to finish school, and still rarely used BC. I avoided the talk of having children like the plague. It hurt too much to even think about it. I think I got 2 periods during the 2 years in HI. We finished school- hooray, and moved back to Virginia in the Summer of 1999, where my husband got our first Health Insurance since we got married.

I made an appointment with a doctor that I randomly picked out of the insurance book. I went in for my visit, and the first thing the Dr. said was, "...have you always had excess facial hair?" What was this, a legitimate question regarding my hormones? We discussed the facial and body hair and moved on to the periods, or lack thereof. I was amazed he seemed to know what was going on. He then told me to lose weight, and I was crushed. I know I need to lose weight (I had gained 35 lbs in 2 years) but I couldn't. I had worked out, fasted, dieted and done everything but surgery to lose weight. As I started sulking, he said, "have you ever heard of the Atkins Diet?"  I mentioned that I had, but did not agree with it's teachings since I did not each much red meat (thanks to the nasty hawaiian hamburger smell). We discussed the diet, and I told him I would think about it. He also ordered some blood test to check my fasting blood sugar and others. My blood sugar came back good, and my cholesterol was low. At a later visit in January 2000 my OB/Gyn,  talked to me about this disease called Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome. I had never heard of it. He said that I displayed most of the symptoms. He ordered a sonogram for me for the following week.

I was ecstatic! No Dr. had ever talked to me about the problem. They had just drugged me up, and sent me away. I got online, and looked up everything I could about PCOS. I found innumerable sites that helped me come to understand the Disease. I had the sonograms (both external and internal - o happy day) and the technician pointed out the little cysts that had formed on the ovaries (neato-thanks). So I knew finally!! Hooray!!! ok so then what??? I went back to my Dr. in March, and we discussed the results. I told him I was not interested in children, so he gave me some progesterone pills, and some BC (Lo-ovral) and I went on my merry little way. I got the nastiest period of my life. Blood clots the size of small fruits. I went off the BC, for some dumb reason, and got depressed again.

My husband and I discussed the next step in my reproductive health. We wanted children, we had just been avoiding it. In January of 2001, I decided to go back to the Dr. and talk to him about my options. He took some more blood test (LH vs. FSH) and they were OK, he also did a cervial biopsy because of an irregular pap smear and he put me on a gradual increase of Metaformin (Glucophage). After the Dr. increased my Gluc. to 3 times a day, and months of research and the start of the Atkins L-Carb Diet I had period! A nasty one, again, but I did it without Progesterone or BC.  . We discussed the possibility of children, and that's where I leave you.

You can follow our progress in My Journal